Île Barbe

This guide to Île Barbe traces an island monastery that Saracen and Hungarian raiders burned to the ground four times between the seventh and ninth centuries, and that monks rebuilt every time from what was already the oldest religious house in the Lyon region. It follows the community through a library rich enough to have drawn Charlemagne's attention, and into the Wars of Religion, when troops under the Baron des Adrets set the abbey ablaze once more. Look for the carved tympanum above the wooden door of Notre Dame, showing Christ flanked by two angels.